This invention relates to a process for removing meltable dust collected on internal surfaces of a heat exchanger.
There is a wide variety of heat exchangers used in many industrial processes. For example, heat exchangers used for cooling gas streams include a shell and tube-type exchanger wherein the gas stream is cooled by flowing a cooling medium in the tube-side of the exchanger and flowing the gas stream in the shell-side of the exchanger.
In processes where the gas stream has collected dust particles, the dust particles can deposit themselves on the outside surfaces of the tubes in the exchanger and the inside surfaces of the shell of the exchanger reducing the efficiency of the exchanger. In order to clean out the exchanger and remove the dust off of the tubes, a shut down of the process is necessary. A great amount of time can be consumed in having an operator clean out the heat exchanger manually.
It is therefore desired to provide a novel process for removing dust particles that are deposited on the internal surfaces of heat exchangers.